Speedskating director Greenwald stepping down

June 20, 2013|By Jared S. Hopkins | Tribune reporter

U.S. Speedskating Executive Director Mark Greenwald checks his phone from the VIP area during Day 1 of the Essent ISU World Sprint Championships at the Utah Olympic Oval last January. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

U.S. Speedskating continued its organizational overhaul Thursday, announcing executive director Mark Greenwald has chosen to step down but will stay through a search for a replacement.

Spokeswoman Tamara Castellano said Greenwald did not intend to stay past the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi and wanted to have someone new to implement changes adopted in May.

“It has been an honor to serve,” Greenwald said in a statement. “It is my goal to ensure the sport’s legacy of tremendous athletic achievement continues through the 2014 Winter Olympic Games and for many years to come.”

Long hampered by internal strife, bickering among athletes and staff and financial problems, U.S. Speedskating has been transforming itself for the past several months. In May, its board of directors adopted a sweeping set of new bylaws, including chopping the size of the board and eliminating many subcommittees, decisions designed to prevent its volunteer board from interfering in the federation’s daily operations.

The change in directors is the latest since Mike Plant, an executive with the Atlanta Braves who has served on the U.S. Olympic Committee Board, arrived in March through a move the U.S. Olympic Committee engineered because of concern the organization’s problems will jeopardize success at Sochi in 2014.

A Tribune investigation in February showed a sport in chaos, including financial deficits and friction between management and athletes. In 2012, a skate-tampering scandal rocked the sport. Eventually, short-track skaters splintered into factions. Greenwald, director since 2010, was a target of criticism from many current and former athletes and staff members.

Plant said Greenwald left voluntarily and has been involved with the restructuring process.

“He was not pushed out,” Plant said. “Mark realized and understood that to truly move forward, the best thing is to bring in a new leader.”

Plant said he expected a new executive director before September and plans to form a search committee that will include federation board members and USOC representatives, including Rick Adams — who was a finalist for Greenwald’s job back in 2010.

In a statement, Plant thanked Greenwald for his time.

Efforts to reach Greenwald for further comment were unsuccessful.

A native of the Chicago suburbs, Greenwald came from Calgary, Alberta, where he moved after competing in the 1992 Olympics and then became manager of Canada’s Olympic Oval. When U.S. Speedskating hired him, the federation’s board members knew he would spend some of his time in Calgary, but were optimistic he could turn things around, particularly the financial problems.

Greenwald inherited a federation that had lost money the previous three years and had just a few sponsors. As of March, there had been nine new sponsors brought in under Greenwald’s tenure. He had begun implementing a series of outreach programs, such as a revised website and fundraising organization. At the organization’s bi-annual meeting in May, he told members that major progress had been made financially.